The Wallaceburg Tartans are the LKSSAA varsity football champions, after beating the Blenheim Bobcats in the league final, 24-0 on Saturday, November 4.
“I thought our defense played a strong game,” Rob MacLachlan, head coach, told the Sydenham Current.
“Anytime you don’t give up a point, you probably have a good chance to win.”
MacLachlan said offensively, the Tartans did what they needed to do.
“We had Patrick Ezewski with two running touch downs, Brody Genyn also had a running touch down and Gabe Namink kicked a field goal and three extra points,” MacLachlan said.
QB injured
The game was called with 1:52 left in the 4th quarter, after Tartans quarterback Ethan Cadotte went down with an injury.
“It was kind of a freak play,” MacLachlan said.
“(He) fumbled a snap, the ball was kind of bouncing around, he was going down to pick it up, he got hit and his head had hit the ground. It was precautionary. Anytime we have a neck injury or something like that, we definitely have some professionals look after it. He was checked out okay. Unfortunately, it was kind of a weird way to end the game, but again we have to be cautious when things like that happen.”
The team huddled around their fallen teammate, until an ambulance arrived to bring him to the hospital.
SWOSSAA ‘A-AA’ final up next
The Tartans will face the winner of the Windsor and Essex County senior league in the SWOSSAA ‘A-AA’ final.
The game will be held at the University of Windsor Stadium, on Wednesday, November 22, tentatively at 4 p.m.
“Unfortunately, we have an 18-day wait until we play our SWOSSAA game,” MacLachlan said.
“It’s just because our league isn’t as big, we get done sooner. The Windsor league doesn’t get done for a couple of weeks.”
The squad from Windsor/Essex team will be a senior team, so it will primarily be the senior kids on the Tartans who will see action in the SWOSSA contest.
New varsity format
MacLachlan said the new Grade 9 to Grade 12 varsity format went well for the Tartans, who are 6-0 on the season in exhibition, regular season and playoffs games.
However, the format may hurt the program in the long run, MacLachlan said.
“Last year we had two teams, so we had practiced them together… so we had some experience in doing that,” he said.
“This year we had about 45 kids, certainly you don’t get as many 9’s and 10’s as you’d like because you don’t have a junior team, but I thought overall it went okay.”
MacLachlan added: “Again, down the road I think it will hurt not having as many 9’s and 10’s playing in game experience, but it is what is keeping us going. That’s just the reality today of a smaller school.”
– Submitted photo
